I'm taking a class on compilers, and the goal is to write a compiler for Meggy Jr devices (Arduino). The goal is just to make a simple compilers with loops and variables and stuff.

Obviously, that's lame, so the "real goal" is to make an impressive game on the device. The problem is that it only has 64 pixels to work with (technically 72, but the top 8 are single-color and not part of the main display, so they're really only useful for displaying things like money).

My problem is thinking of something to do on a device that small. It doesn't really matter if it's original, but it can't be something that's already available. My first idea was "snake", but that comes with the SDK. Same with a side-scrolling shooter.

Remaining ideas include a tower defense game (hard to write, hard to control), an RPG (same), tetris (lame)..

The problem is that all of the games I like require a high-resolution screen because they have a lot of text. Even a really simple game like nethack would be hard because each creature would be a single color.

tl;dr What styles of games require a. No text; and b. Few enough objects that representing them each with a single color is acceptable?

EDIT: To clarify, the display is 8x8 for a total of 64 pixels, not 64x64.

You can "increase" the color count in a way: make pixels blink, if device allows that, that way very fast blinking pixel will be different from static in looks and color (TFT displays do that to emulate 24bit color). That will add a certain variability.
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Krom SternFeb 5 '11 at 9:17

@ziggystar: I disagree. While tetris is a great game, it has been ported so much "everywhere" that it would be kind of lame porting it somewhere else. Moreover, since he has only 8x8 pixels available, I can't imagine any sane and fun way to play Tetris under those constraints.
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LohorisFeb 7 '11 at 13:04

A game... On a 8 by 8 screen? Hmm... What about the game of life (google it)? It doesn't have any user interaction though...
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jcoNov 21 '11 at 18:09

That makes me think about board games, like Go or Checkers, and puzzley things involving pentaminos or other interesting configurations of uniform parts. I'd stay away from heavily spatial games as well as the text-heavy. Your game pretty much has to be abstract. With 8x8 rez, you might be able to do something as spatial as Sakoban, but I have my doubts.

To be clear here: none of the games named above will work very well. You'll need to create your own game and rules, but I'd suggest keeping the above games in mind when you do so. Simple world states that display easily, but more complex mechanics behind-the-scenes. Your game won't be able to have much metaphor, so I'd stay abstract.

Strikes me that a basic Rogue-like top-down corridor shooter could be possible. At 8x8 you obviously wouldn't have space to show a full room, but you would be able to show a small section of the map. A white pixel could be you (fade to black as you lose health), gold for treasure, red for enemies, green for healing, etc. 1-pixel wide walls, 2, 3 or 4 pixel wide corridors, and it might just work.

You could write something akin to a tomagatchi or other virtual pet. The original ones were done on very low resolution screens.

Pong is another game that comes to mind for a low resolution display. While it may seem basic, it covers most of the important bits in many games: collisions, physics (albeit simple), game-loop, etc. On such a limited platform, you may be forced to "roll your own" for many of those tasks which may take up more time that you anticipated.

Many of the classics would render well with such limited screen space, such as: Tetris, Pacman and Asteroids. You could also try board games such as Checkers, Chess and Backgammon. Also, Helicopter is one of my favorite, simple games.